Some 27,000 BMW vehicles ordered to stop running on South Korean roads

SEOUL -- South Korea's transport ministry ordered the compulsory suspension of more than 27,000 BMW vehicles Tuesday amid heightened safety concerns over a string of fires, urging the German carmaker to give a clear answer to allegations that it has overlooked or covered up structural defects.

The order from Land, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Kim Hyun-mee came as BMW failed to complete a voluntary recall of 106,317 vehicles to fix faulty components. As of midnight Monday, 27,246 vehicles did not receive an emergency safety check.

"It is an inevitable measure to protect the safety of the people," Kim said in a statement, adding an order will be delivered to BMW drivers through local governments. She called for a "fair and thorough" probe by related government bodies and experts into the exact cause of successive fires involving BMW sedans.

In the 39th case this year, a gasoline-powered BMW M3 caught fire in the rear part Monday on a highway in Namyangju, northeast of Seoul.

"(BMW) should give a clear and responsible answer to suspicions that it has ignored or even concealed problems directly linked to the lives of the people," Kim said, adding the government would strengthen punishment for delayed recalls and the concealment of defective parts.

BMW has insisted that due to a faulty component in EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) modules, the high-temperature exhaust gas is suspected of inflowing into the intake manifold without being cooled, leading to the creation of a hole and a fire on the engine cover.

The transport ministry has conducted a separate probe into possible software manipulation. There have been unconfirmed allegations that BMW has engineered emissions reduction software to pass regulations. EGR reduces nitrogen oxide emissions from diesel engines.

On Monday, police started collecting testimonies from the owners of BMW sedans who sued six BMW officials in Germany and South Korea for the alleged violation of safety rules.

Volkswagen has been embroiled in legal actions after it admitted in September 2015 to using cheating devices in U.S. emissions tests. In South Korea, the Germany company was slapped with a record fine of 31.8 million US dollars in December 2016 for obtaining government permission with fabricated documents.